Insights
We are the UK's only dedicated accounting practice focused exclusively on short-term let and holiday let operators. These are the tax and compliance issues we handle daily, written up for the operators handling them themselves.
As of April 2026, roughly 84% of English billing authorities apply a 100% council tax premium on furnished second homes. For STL owners the choice is now binary — meet the 70/140-day business rates threshold, or pay double.
The FHL regime was abolished with effect from 6 April 2025. The first full year of self-assessments under the new rules has now been submitted. This is what the numbers actually looked like, where the biggest cash-flow surprises landed, and what operators should be doing now to soften the second year.
From 6 April 2026 the 100% inheritance tax relief on qualifying business property is capped at £2.5m combined with agricultural relief, with the excess dropping to 50%. Combined with the FHL abolition, most STL portfolios now have no BPR at all — and succession planning needs a rebuild.
The 2026 non-domestic rates revaluation has moved the arithmetic. For STL operators in Scotland, the previously reliable answer - stay on business rates, claim Small Business Bonus - is no longer automatically the best answer. This is how to work out which rating gives you the lower bill for your specific property.
The abolition of the FHL regime has moved the tax gap between running an STL as a sole trader and running it through a limited company. For portfolios of any real size, the Ltd route now saves more tax than it did under the old regime - but the transition costs are real and the fit depends heavily on your borrowing structure.
The abolition of the FHL regime removed the 10% Business Asset Disposal Relief route on holiday let sales. From April 2026 BADR itself rises from 14% to 18%, and residential-property CGT sits at 24% for higher-rate taxpayers. For a portfolio exit the differences are five and six figures.